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The Vintage Collection at Marshalls for $5!

I rather unexpectedly found most of the AOTC wave (the first one) at Marshalls today for $4.99 a figure. They had Grievous, whom I had, and the Sandtrooper, who's an easy pass for me since I've got way too many Stormtroopers already. And I passed on ROTS Kit, since I hate that design. Sure, they tried to trick me by sticking him on an AOTC card, but I wasn't fooled.

I picked up the Peasant Disguise Ani and Padme. At $10, I didn't think they were worth the price and passed a few times. For half that, they were worth it. Also got Mace; I realize he's probably a repack of a figure I passed on at some point since I just stopped paying attention to new Maces, but he has the best Samuel L Jackson head I've ever seen anywhere but on Samuel L Jackson and that alone was worth the price (the Marshalls price, not the original retail price).

Mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, it's awesome that I got them so cheaply. On the other, this was a rather early wave and the line has had major distribution issues; if this wave is at Marshalls, it really doesn't speak well for the future of the line (aside from maybe finding later figures there in the coming months).

They also had the more-or-less unreleased Transformers Reveal the Shield Megatron and Prime for $3.99. None of the others. This might not be quite as huge a deal (since retail would've probably been $6), but, since no one else carried them, it's more than fine by me. I got both; the kid in me couldn't pass on a gun Megatron, and I got Prime to get the matched set. (My 1-year-old son thought I was funny in line as I made them recite The Transformers: The Movie to each other, in my best approximations of Welker and Cullen's voices. )

I've also seen reports of them popping up at TJ Maxx for the same price. There's only one AOTC wave, and that was wave 4, which was supposed to hit around this time last year but didn't start trickling in until February and only recently started to hit again, never really meeting any sort of demand. It's too bad the distribution really sucked hard until fairly recently, but given that wave 4 and 5 are being pushed through the pipeline way later than they were supposed to (and wave 5 already hit a lot harder than 4 ever did), I'm not bothered by the fact that they were clearanced out. I'm assuming they were hiding in the distribution center as newer waves made it out instead.

I'm hoping the distribution woes go away on January 30, but I'm not sure how many collectors will jump on the TPM stuff.

Chux, that Mace uses the 2007 TAC figure (with force lightning on his lightsaber, which has been reissued a number of times), added a fantastic new head, and gave him cloth lower robes. So it's actually unique to this release, so far.

Marshalls and TJ Maxx are the same company. Most TJ Maxx's look a little nicer in their setup, but the merchandise, prices, and even price tags are usually the same. The company also owns Home Goods, but I've seen very few toys there, and never anything collectible.

Thanxx for the Marshall's/TJ Maxx heads-up, Chux! I saw a Sandtrooper, a Super Battle Droid, and a Mace. But I bought the Peasant Couple (Annie and Padme). I was hoping to find Ms. Wessel too, but Zammit, no luck. Don't like the giant Marshall's sticker on the card front, but for $4.99 I shouldn't complain. (I still did)